Thursday, February 16, 2012

Lalon update

Lalon, Lalon, Lalon... she is just something else.  Sneaky and sweet all at the same time.  She makes me laugh every day and I love her so much.

Lalon's latest news is that she is potty training and doing really great with it! She's been wearing her big girl underwear and we've had some accidents, sure, but overall I think she was certainly ready.  This week, she has worn her big girl pants to school and only had one accident so far!

She continues to love to mess with Naylor and it's sometimes funny to watch... all those times he was beating up on her when she was so small are starting to come back to him (guess she was making a mental tally after all!).  She will go get one of his special toys and then stand in front of him until he notices and then squeals and runs away so he will chase her.  What a mess!  They sure do love playing with each other and while they certainly have their share of fights, there is certainly love.

Lalon is still rocking out in her big girl bed and could be a bit of a hoarder when it comes to bed time.  She has this list of items she wants in the bed with her and with all that she has, I don't know how she knows, but she knows if one item is missing.  Also, Aunt Kerri gave the kids "tunnels and castles" for Christmas and Lalon's is in her room now.  They love playing with them and on two different occasions, I've found Lalon in her castle taking her nap - one time naked... she had peed in her diaper and didn't want to be wet, so went au natural!



Lots of fun for Lalon these days.  She loves to do some "work", loves hearts, her babies and loves a prize snack (piece of candy), popcorn or marshmellow.  The child would eat an entire bag of marshmellows at once if you'd let her!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Whitley Ann update

Time to do some catch up!!  I think since my last post Whitley Ann has hit probably her 10 month and 11 month birthdays - whoops!  She has changed and grown so much just in the past month, with almost a new trick coming each day.

She has moved from her early days of army crawling to a real crawl with her belly off of the floor.  The day after Christmas, we were at Annie and Pa's house and she climbed two stairs on two different occasions; I thought uh-oh then.  Shortly after being back home I ran upstairs to change the laundry over and in just a minute I turned to find Whitley Ann just behind me... I had not brought her, so she had climbed all the way upstairs and made her way into the laundry room!  Well, that happened only one more time before I got the gates back out and placed one at the stairs.

Teeth were coming in quickly there for a while, but seem to have slowed down for a bit.  She now has her bottom two center and top two center, along with the top right - looks like the top left is starting to peep through as well.  Her newest, most unfortunate trick, saved just for Mommy, is biting - she's only done it a few times, but still those little suckers are sharp!  She's now consistently saying "uh-oh", "ma ma" (although not necessarily about me), sometimes "da da" and once in a while a "buh" which comes when I'm trying to get her to say "bye" and will wave (most of the time after person leaving is gone, gotta work on that timing!).

She's been cruising around the furniture for quite some time and has one 'walking' toy that she loves to push around when Naylor and Lalon let her have a turn!  That's another fun thing; it is so much fun to watch them beginning to really interact with Whitley Ann now that she's bigger and trying to keep up and their laughs are just the best.  Whitley Ann can't stand to be without them these days and will sneak up in to whatever they are doing.  Naylor's thing these days are those 'races' he sets up with his cars and Whitley will come through and grab a car... or Lalon will have her work and Whitley will get all in her business.  We now (very lovingly) call her the "Whitley Monster " when she is doing these things.  It tickles Naylor so much and at night when we are going upstairs and we let Whitley crawl up the stairs and he will get in front of her and giggle the whole time saying the "Whitley Monster is coming to get me!".

This is a rare moment of seeing the Whitley Monster taking action, in a few short seconds that nice organized cabinet will be destroyed with a string of forks and spoons strewn from the garage door,
through the kitchen and into the den.
One last update that isn't quite as cute... she got an ear infection about a week and a half before Christmas which was the pits and we got some amoxycillin.  At her 2 week follow-up, she still had the infection in both ears, so we did a little stronger medicine, ominicef.  After a longer stretch, almost 3 weeks just because of scheduling, still there. BOO.  So at that point our pediatrician suggested we do a rocephin shot for 3 days straight to really knock it out.  We did, starting on a Thursday, went Friday and Saturday to get the shots.  By that Saturday, the dr said she could see some improvement and that hopefully this would be the end.  Another 2 week follow-up and she was looking pretty good.  Then over the past week and a half the rest of us have gotten sick; Naylor and Lalon both got ear infections (about a week and a half apart).  Brian was really sick and home for a few days from work, as he was starting to get better I started getting it.  We tried all the home medicating we could, but I finally went to the dr and got some meds which have done the trick - I really think I had an ear infection!  Anyway, the day I went to the dr, Whitley Ann was just out of sorts, so after naps I took her in and low and behold... ear infection.  She's on augmentin now and seems to be a bit happier, so I do believe it's working, but we obviously have some other issues to address.  I'm taking her Friday morning for a consultation with an ENT specialist per our pediatrician's advise.

Love this picture - that big old smile and look at those teeth - my sweet girl!
Oh!  And we are working our way away from bottles and she's eating tons and tons of table foods, basically anything we eat except for spicy stuff.  I'm not trying to rush her, but I am a tiny bit excited to not make any more bottles (after 3 years it's getting just a tiny bit old).  I just poured the last of our formula into the container last night, so the end is near...

Aside from the ear situation, she is doing really great and is just the best.  She is so happy and has the most contagious smile and really and truly completes our family.  I'm so thankful we have her in our lives and love seeing all three of them interacting together.  Brian and I are so very blessed; God is good.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks Valentine's Rooster!
The roses we shared with the kids


My beautiful roses - I don't know that Brian has ever given me a dozen red roses  - hmmm....
Lalon showing Naylor her new stuff (I can't tell what she's holding)
Lalon *loves* hearts; she was having as much fun with the decor as her treats!
This airplane was a hit; he hasn't put it down yet.  I love Lalon's expression here; she's the best.

A day late, but Happy Valentine's Day!  We were good this year and the Valentine's Rooster visited us all.  Naylor and Lalon got a few little knick knacks and candies, while Whitley Ann got some puffs and fruit.  Lalon was sick last week, so she's been making up those at school yesterday and today so Naylor, Whitley Ann and I had a nice day just hanging out at home.  Once we picked Lalon up from school, it was home for a nice family spaghetti dinner and a quiet night in with some wine.  Brian brought home a beautiful dozen of red roses that we shared with the kids - got them each a small bud vase and they loved smelling their own rose.  Brian and I got the kids cleaned up and in bed and enjoyed the evening together just catching up and watching some tv.  I also got to play around with my new iPad!!  I'm still deciding if I want to keep it or not, but wowee this was our biggest Valentine's ever.  After all this time, Brian can still surprise me!  The best part is the love that  this family has brought me - I feel like we are truly complete and really finding our groove as a family of five now.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A crafty Saturday Night

I saw this on a friend's blog and knew immediately I was going to be trying it out!  Let me tell you, overall it was a pretty easy craft.  However, it's hard to get a profile picture of 3 small children, but on the bright side, I have them very well trained to look at the camera.  After the pictures, the rest of it went pretty quickly and I was so glad that I waited until the kids were asleep to do this.  I'm reworking the whole 'gallery' in our living room to add in some of Whitley Ann's pictures and I plan to put these in the mix too!  I'm including links to the two blogs (my friend's and her friend's with the instructions) in case you want to try it out yourself.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  At the moment, I'm thinking I may change the background for the girls' silhouettes, but I'm going to see how they look on the wall before I do that...

My friend Lindsay's blog entry

Tutorial of How to Make Silhouettes

And here are my finished products - I was pretty excited that I actually finished a project!


Lalon 

Naylor 

Whitley Ann

Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers

And another Pinterest recipe... I know you're probably all sick of hearing about Pinterest!  I'm typing this up as the peppers are cooking and while I haven't tasted them yet, they sure do smell yummy!

Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Peppers, from Skinnytaste

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes  
Servings: 5 • Serving Size: 2 halves • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 8 pts
Calories: 303.7 • Fat: 5.9 g • Protein: 29.9 g • Carb: 34.9 g • Fiber: 6.5 g 
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 half red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup parsley (or cilantro)
  • 5 bell peppers (red or green)
  • 14 oz shredded cooked chicken breast
  • cumin
  • adobo (or salt)
  • 15.5 oz can white beans
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
In a medium pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add chopped onions, garlic, parsley and red pepper. Saute until soft, about a minute. Add chicken and season with cumin andadobo. Add beans and 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water and simmer for about 5-10 minutes, until it thickens and the liquid reduces. Adjust spices to taste.


Preheat oven to 350°. Cut peppers in half removing seeds and stem. Place peppers in an oven-proof dish. Fill each pepper with 1/3 cup of chicken and bean mixture. Pourabout 1/3 cup water or chicken broth on the bottom of the dish. Cover tight with foil.Bake 30 minutes at 350°. Remove foil, top with cheese and bake uncovered another 5 minutes.


Healthy Banana Bread


Of course another great find on Pinterest... and my friend Meghan had also made it, saying it was a keeper, so Lalon and I tried our hand at it this morning.  Unfortunately we got too far in before I realized I didn't have enough of all the ingredients needed, so we improvised.  So the improvised version we made this morning probably lost some "healthy" points, but it was good!  Just so you know what I didn't have, I used white AP flour (didn't have any whole wheat) and I only had about a 1/4 cup of honey, so I added 1/2 cup of molasses - and that my friends is where healthy said good-bye!  :)

Banana Bread, from 8 weeks to a healthier you


Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar free applesauce
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 mashed overripe bananas

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
  3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. 

Friday, February 10, 2012

Naylor update

Naylor has really blossomed as a 3 year old - enjoying being the 'big boy' of the family and helping Mommy and Daddy.  This week he went to the dentist for the first time and did a great job!!  We did a few practice runs of what might happen while we were there and I think that was helpful, as well as our awesome hygienist Jessica who was wonderful in keeping Naylor at ease.  She showed him her John Deere toothbrush (winning!), let him wear some SpiderMan sunglasses (winning!) and showed him her super big flashlight (heck yeah!).  Oh, and he got to watch Mickey Mouse all the while.  I was so pleased with how well he did, so he got to pick out a prize Lighting McQueen car on the way home.


We just recently got the Cars movies and he *loves* them!  He's always had a thing for cars, but now it's over the top and he likes to set up races.  This basically means he lines as many cars up as possible and just marvels at them.  Every once in a while, the "Whitley Monster" (she comes out just about the time a race is ready) will crash the race, but generally he's even a good sport about that.

Some fun things he says that I want to jot down before I forget them...


  • The other morning he came in the bedroom and told me I needed to get up because the sun was awake.
  • He likes to give a high 5, but will say, "get me five!"
  • If when he is getting dressed his shirt is inside out, he'll say, "My shirt is in outside!".  
A race lining up...

Another race he made before bed time...

All yesterday he kept sitting at the table with a few trucks and saying it was his office.
At dinner he didn't want to eat in his office - he's so funny!
I have a list somewhere of other funnies, but can't find it at the moment - I'll add to this when I do!